Probegrube

new landscapes show up in the unlikeliest places

by Tobias Rehberger

in front of the Schauspielhaus

Opening
Thu – 16. May 19

Who owns the city? Who owns the Rosensteinquartier, the area being cleared north of the Main Station thanks to Stuttgart 21, previously a desert of train tracks, perhaps the last utopian space in Stuttgart?
The first public tender for the development of Rosenstein area was issued in the mid-90s. Many others followed, many designs were submitted, then another round of the competition. In 2027, the International Construction Expo will take place in the city and region of Stuttgart, 100 years after the avant-garde of European architects presented their then radical “living plan for the modern large city resident” in the Weißenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart. The issue of urban development is a defining one for Stuttgart, but all too often, the vision must yield to pragmatism.
Artist Tobias Rehberger and his studio have developed a project for the Schauspiel Stuttgart about the utopian potential of the urban development connected to Stuttgart 21. In this project, Rehberger links his vision for the Rosensteinquartier in model form with the public announcement of the new theatre season and the possibility of a forum for diverse kinds of public space. To begin the new artistic directorship of Burkhard C. Kosminski, he will transform a model of the new city district into an amphitheatre in the upper Palace Gardens directly across from the theatre. In doing so, he will not just reference the neighbouring Stuttgart 21 excavation site formally, but also interms of content: wherever something big is built, there has to be a lot of digging first. Above the earth, the excavation pit becomes a piece of construction, a place of paradox. The excavation construction includes a model world of the Rosensteinquartier, in which – at the same time a theatre programme – fragmentary hints on the coming theatre season will be shown and various events will take place.

With generous support of the Förderverein der Staatstheater e.V. and the Thieme Verlag.

In cooperation with the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Heinrich Böll Foundation Baden-Württemberg, the International Architecture Exhibition 2027 and the Verband Garten-, Landschafts- und Sportplatzbau Baden-Württemberg e.V.